The Relationship Between Anxiety, Homesickness, Academic Performance, and Social Adjustment in College Students

Amanda Walker and Shannon Murray

Anxiety has previously been linked to the emotional, social, and academic adjustment of first-year college students. This study compared the overall anxiety and adjustment of first-year students to upper-level students. One hundred seventy nine students (40% freshmen, 60% upperclassmen) completed self-report measures of overall anxiety, homesickness, social anxiety, academic performance, and demographics. Results showed that the more overall anxiety students reported, the greater their levels of homesickness, social anxiety, and academic anxiety, and the lower their academic confidence. Because anxiety can inhibit students’ abilities to adapt sufficiently to the college environment, and because previous research focuses mainly on freshmen, this study holds important implications for understanding the relationship between anxiety and adjustment to college in first-year and upper-level students.